Dear Erica,
Happy spring solstice! It is peak bloom for cherry trees here in D.C. which is a welcome sight after the winter we had. The current international education policy landscape is clearly less rosy than a cherry blossom, but there are some signs of hope!
As Karin Fischer reported in her newsletter this week, a federal court judge has rebuffed the Trump administration’s effort to dismiss a lawsuit filed over last spring’s widespread student visa revocations. This lawsuit was filed by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts.
Recall that new legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last week that would make Optional Practical Training (OPT) part of immigration law. NAFSA Advocacy Day 2026 participants have been pinging the House offices they met with to urge their cosponsorship. Be sure to add your voice!
Another key message delivered by NAFSA advocates last week was the need for sustained federal funding for international education programs at the Departments of State and Education. This cause got a boost from Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC-02) who led a letter in support of FY2027 funding for Title VI and Fulbright-Hays at the Department of Education. That letter—which closed on March 26—had drawn more than 70 signatures as of the time this newsletter went to press. Use our system to send a message of thanks if your representative is a signatory (our system won’t allow you to send one if they weren’t as of press time).
In other news, we have updated the NAFSA Policy Digest 2026, a running complication of relevant U.S. public policy updates since the beginning of the year. This handy resource serves as a complement to the NAFSA Current Administration page.
Two immigration attorneys who are well-known to NAFSAns, Dan Berger and Stephen Yale-Loehr, collaborated on a March 19 piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education, How to Prepare for When ICE Shows Up on Campus. Visit NAFSA’s blog for more resources. If you would like to be connected to international educators from Minnesota and elsewhere who have first-hand experience with this matter, please email me at [email protected] with something like “Seeking Support RE: ICE Enforcement” in the subject line.
Stuart Anderson writes in Forbes that the decline in legal immigration that the current administration has boasted about is harming the U.S. economy and not benefiting U.S. workers.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
That's all for now.
Best,
Erica
Erica Stewart
Senior Director, Advocacy & Strategic Communications
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
